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Recording Help Please!

Hi,

I purchased Garritan Instant Orchestra to create .wav sound files to use in mixing music. However, when I open Aria as a standalone it does not appear to give me the option to record what I play. How do I record?!

I also have a suggestion for the standalone player: Add linking buttons so that the keyboard will play all of the selected channels at the same time? I love the individual sounds included with the software, but can't figure out how to get them to play at the same time.

Re: Recording Help Please!

Originally Posted by Corbin Campbell

Hi,

I purchased Garritan Instant Orchestra to create .wav sound files to use in mixing music. However, when I open Aria as a standalone it does not appear to give me the option to record what I play. How do I record?!

I also have a suggestion for the standalone player: Add linking buttons so that the keyboard will play all of the selected channels at the same time? I love the individual sounds included with the software, but can't figure out how to get them to play at the same time.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Hi, Corbin - Welcome to the Forum.

I have your answers - And I'll pass on a few other things:

--Most people use ARIA and the Garritan Libraries like Instant Orchestra inside a host program, such as Sonar, Cubase, Reaper. With ARIA used as a plugin that way, the full power of the package can be accessed. You have 16 separate audio outs available, you have a metronome, and a MIDI editor to work your project up to a pro level.

--The Standalone is mostly used for when someone wants to sit down and play the piano or another instrument, and to audition different instruments - simple things like that.

--HOWEVER, you can record in the Standalone and you can also get as many instruments playing at once as you'd like, up to 16. But your options are much more limited than when ARIA is used as a plugin in a recording program.

--One of the biggest limitations with the Standalone is that you'll probably only have one stereo output from ARIA - the stereo pair on your sound interface or computer soundcard. There are pro audio interfaces that have multiple outs, but those are more rare in a home recording studio.

--And though you can record in the Standalone, there's no metronome - It would be impossible to record something and expect it to synchronize with other tracks you may want to layer in later.

All that being said, below is text from page 40 of the ARIA Player manual which outlines some things about the Standalone, showing how to play MIDI files you may have already recorded, and how to render them to audio. First, here's a screenshot of the image on that page of the manual:

The standalone version of the ARIA Player includes a MIDI File Player and Audio Recorder. They are located at the bottom of the standalone window. These features enable the user to load and play a standard MIDI file and render an audio file from it. The MIDIcontrols are located on the left hand
side and the Audio controls on the right.

To load and play a MIDI file:

1) Click on the “Load” button.
2) Choose the file you wish to load.
3) Click on the “Play” button.

The MIDI file will play back using the presently loaded instrument and any other features (e.g. Ambience reverb) activated in the player. The progress bar will move to the right as the file is played. To start the file from the beginning, click on the “Go to Beginning” button. The file can be stopped at any time by clicking on the “Stop” button.

To record your playback to an audio file:

1)Click on the “Name File” button (at the far right).
2) Name the file and specify its desired location.
3) Click on the “Record” button.
4) Start playback by clicking on the MIDI “Play” button.
5) When playback finishes, click on the MIDI “Stop” button.
6) Click on the Audio “Stop” button.

The audio file will be located on your drive in the location you specified.

------------

If you want to directly record your live playing, click that same "Name File" button, type in a name, select a location, push record, and start playing.

YOUR SECOND QUESTION:

--You want to play a group of instruments at the same time. Usually people want to assemble a whole group of virtual musicians, recreating various kinds of bands and orchestras, and that kind of work has to be done in a recording program. As explained above, with ARIA being used as a plugin, the user can have 16 different instruments per instance of ARIA inserted into a project. It's not uncommon for sophisticated Garritan projects to use 4, 5, 6 and even more instances of ARIA.

--But when using ARIA either in a host program or in Standalone mode, you can layer as many instruments you want very easily:

Here's a screenshot labeling the items in ARIA's instrument slots. You can see the last number sets the MIDI Channel for an instrument. Click that number, and a menu pops up letting you choose any of the 16 MIDI Channels you want.

So for layering multiple instruments the way you've asked for, load the instruments, then set all of them to be tuned to the same channel e.g. MIDI CHannel 01. When you play the keyboard, they will all play at the same time.

Notice there's also a control for selecting the audio out. The default is "1/2" which stands for the L and R sides of one stereo track. There are 16 audio outs available when ARIA is used in a host program, as explained above. Those are labeled "1/2" through "31/32." But in Standalone mode, only 1/2 will be available.

I think I have you covered now!

Now I invite you to post whenever you want in the General Discussion Forum. Use the Forum Jump menu at the bottom right. Most members only go to General Discussion anymore, so your posts will be more likely to be read if you post there.